I was talking to a fellow Feng Shui practitioner who wanted to purchase my Career Tips for Feng Shui Consultants e-book. She already has a wealth of knowledge from studying with several schools and with several teachers, but she has not taken on many jobs. She also wanted to know how much I vet my clients before going to their homes.
It’s ironic, because in the Career Tips e-book I mention that sometimes I know very little about my upcoming client before we meet. This is because some people intentionally tell me as little as possible. They want me to evaluate their home without any influence, which they think might alter what I say or discover when on-site.
Of course, the opposite is true because many prospective clients want to fill me in on what is going on in their lives and what even prompted them to contact me. They may want to know if I can help them with their specific problem or concern.
But this friend was alluding to personal safety when visiting clients. When that became clear, a rush of memories filled my mind about the very few and far between instances when I felt possibly at risk being in a client’s home or even while on the phone before scheduling. It’s never been a major concern, although there have been a few times when I was visiting a known, unsafe neighborhood. This had nothing to do with my client; rather, a concern about how close I could park to my client’s residence. And most of my jobs are scheduled during the day, but a few have needed to be at night, when I did not enjoy walking for blocks alone in the dark.
In my first book Feng Shui for Skeptics (2004), I wrote about winding up at a prostitute’s house. I didn’t know what she did for a living before arriving and frankly, it was not her being a prostitute that bothered me. There were other things going on and things that she said, which made me wonder who might show up at her house while I was there.
One time, a man tried to schedule an appointment, but when we were on the phone he informed me that he is a nudist! He wanted to know if I would be bothered by him being nude during the consultation. At first, I tested him by asking if he minded me bringing along a fellow male consultant. He didn’t like that idea and I didn’t appreciate his lack of boundaries, even if he had no intention of being inappropriate. I decided against scheduling with him, even with another person present. Not that there is anything wrong with being a nudist! Just not my cup of tea. And because he was not referred by anyone I knew and trusted, I suggested he find another consultant to work with.
Some of you may have already assumed that being a Feng Shui consultant is NOT boring and over the decades I have been in some very interesting places and have met mostly wonderful people. The Career Tips ebook is for consultants or aspiring consultants who have already had classical training. The focus is on thebusiness side, what kind of expectations to have, how to handle both common and unusual situations, and how to set yourself up for professionalism and success.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions (R)
From the Philosophical & Metaphysical Musings Blog Series
